With opioid addiction becoming more common across the country and Louisiana, local law enforcement officials are taking steps to limit access to the drugs.

Secure boxes will be set up soon in Lafayette, Acadia, St. Landry and Vermilion parishes for people to drop off unused or unwanted prescription medications.

Several similar boxes have already been established in other Louisiana parishes.

“Louisiana is one of only eight states in the country which has more opioid prescriptions than residents,” Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said at a Wednesday press conference. “We have an average of 118 opioid prescriptions per 100 people. It’s a deadly combination, and it affects the public safety.”

Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mark Garber said his office has seen the effects locally. Garber said many property crimes and violent crimes are associated with drug activity, either prescriptions or other narcotics.

When the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office recently held a one-day prescription drug collection event, Garber said more than 80 pounds of drugs were turned in.

“We know there is a tremendous amount of unused prescription medications in our community, and we all know prescription drugs are just as dangerous as non-prescription drugs when they are in the wrong hands,” Garber said.

Landry said his goal is to have a collection box in every parish. The project is a partnership among the attorney general’s office, local law enforcement agencies, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators.

“If citizens don’t engage, it doesn’t do us any good, so we’re asking people to clean out their medicine cabinets,” Landry said. “We know that most of those who get addicted to opiods start off by experimenting with prescriptions they were not prescribed.”

The box in Lafayette will be near the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office.